Perry’s final Iowa pitch: GOP nomination won’t be decided tonight

Texas Gov. Rick Perry told CNN’s John King moments ago that it’s not Iowa, but South Carolina, that may be the real decider in the GOP 2012 presidential nomination.

No wonder: latest polls show Perry could come in back in the pack of the race in the Hawkeye State.
Still, in the final hours before Iowans caucus, Perry was charing hard, bolstered by 500 volunteers from around the country, including a team of state legislators from California.

He went on the attack against GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney and former Penn. Senator Rick Santorum, surging in the final hours.
Perry said Romney has had “a consistency problem,” adding that “a Massachusetts governor that put individual mandates in place” for health care and helped formed the basis for Obamacare “is not going to sell in South Carolina.”
And Santorum doesn’t have the money or the campaign to move on strongly, he said.
Asked if he’s worried he’ll be a spoiler who will weaken the eventual GOP candidate — as Republicans have seen in the past, Perry said no.
“This election..is so different from any election that you’ve ever seen in the past,” he said. “This election is far from decided and today won’t decide it..South Carolina will come near giving us a better clue who’s going to be the Republican nominee.”